St. Augustine may have came in and left the game with the better record on Thursday, but Menendez weathered mental errors and late rallies to win 25-19, 25-21, 17-25, 25-22.

“Our entire team stepped up for us,” Falcons’ coach Holli Winter said. “Whether it was Danielle (Forgie) stepping up for us and calming the team down defensively or one of our players getting the ball down, they kept it together.”

The Falcons (11-5), historically the more successful volleyball squad of the two rivals, started off the season similar to how they began Thursday night against the 11-2 Yellow Jackets — uncharacteristically sloppy.

Service errors plagued each team in the opening frame. Neither amounted any sort of advantage until Menendez managed a 9-3 run to end the set, as serve after serve sailed long for each side.

At one point, the miscues caused St. Augustine head coach Anna Renton’s mouth to hang agape in disbelief.

“Sometimes it’s as simple as playing in a new gym that can affect those shots,” Renton said. “We really haven’t traveled well this year. Overall, we’ve done pretty well, but making our play carry over (is important).”

The emotions of a rivalry tend to obscure proper execution, but to a certain extent that’s to be expected when these teams play. No matter the history, no matter the record and no matter the venue.

“This wasn’t just an away game,” Renton said. “It’s a huge rivalry game that players get excited for. Emotions can get to you if you let them.”

Libero Danielle Forgie led the Falcons in digs and points, scoring 10 times and keeping 25 balls from hitting the court. When the two teams met earlier in the season, St. Augustine swept the Falcons in straight sets. What’s changed now for the Falcons exists in the details.

“We all connect more as a team in general,” Forgie said. “We’ve been working on the small things, making sure we’re all on the same page with details. The little things have improved a lot since we first played St. Augustine.”

In the deciding set, Menendez only took hold of the match at the end by edging St. Augustine out of the lead at 23-22. Despite a 13-2 run by the Jackets, Menendez never let the game get out of hand. Winter called a timeout with her team trailing by four that stopped a run — just as she did in the second set.

Even with her team leading 10-6, Winter took time to remind her team to stay focused, such as reminding senior Taylor Sousa to follow through on shots to keep the balls from falling out of bounds as they had been doing so often earlier.

“I was making sure they knew we needed to cut that rally short,” Winter said. “We had come back from the same deficit in the second game, so there was no need to get worried.”

The duo Renton tried to stay away from, seniors Leisha Samuels and Barbara Benzenberg, still managed to get their points. Benzenberg finished with a game-high 11 kills, with Samuels adding eight of her own.

“We tried keeping it away from those two, but not as well as we should have,” Renton said. “They might not have had the statistics they usually have, but they were the ones getting the ball down time after time.”

For St. Augustine, Sierra Riter recorded nine kills and three aces, both tops for the Jackets. Logan Holanchock made 11 digs and Molly Burkhardt tallied 24 assists.

“We were all excited as a team, it was a bit of nerves and a little of us not performing well,” Forgie said. “It’s an awesome feeling beating a rival. When we came back the first time we had the confidence going into those last games to stay together.”

St. Augustine’s lone set victory saw the only wide margins, with the Yellow Jackets rushing out to a 12-5 lead and keeping their distance from the Falcons on their way to an eight-point win.

Roundup

In other action from around the county, Ponte Vedra improved to 14-3 with a 3-0 (25-7, 25-8, 25-4) win over Matanzas. Jenn Hayes had 12 kills to lead the way. Kasey Lagow added eight digs and 13 service points. Brooke Lagow tacked on 18 assists. Addie Dirito contributed four aces.

St. Johns Country Day 3, FSDB 0: The Dragons fell to 1-13 with a 25-9, 25-21, 25-19 loss.

Sarah Kimbley had nine digs and six assists. Robin Spigner tallied eight digs and five service points. Jaletta Gibbs contributed 10 service points. Jazzmin Washington had six assists and five kills and Sandy Moreno tacked on five digs.

Beacon of Hope 3, Temple 0: Beacon took down Temple 25-16, 25-15, 25-7 to move to 6-8 on the season.

Jackie Evans had two aces. Kacy Douglas tallied eight aces. Kaley Goodall notched a kill and two aces. Tori Mihalich had four aces and Krysta Henry added an ace.